China Begins Paying Attention to Rural Elderly Care Issues
Policy Under Review Focusing on Strengthening Elderly Health and Care
Yang Wei (35), who lives in a rural area, has parents who will turn 60 next year. Yang, residing in Beijing, was disheartened to learn that the elderly insurance pension provided by the local government, which can be received monthly for parents without retirement preparations, amounts to an average of only 204.7 yuan (approximately 38,874 KRW) per month.
In China, where rapid aging is underway, young people like Yang, whose parents live in rural areas, face significant concerns. This is because rural areas lack proper elderly care services and hospital systems, and the elderly insurance pension supported by the government is grossly insufficient.
Concerned about this, the Chinese government has announced various policies aimed at the elderly in rural areas with a deadline set for 2025. The guideline policy, titled "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Elderly Care Services in Rural Areas," focuses on strengthening welfare services such as health and care for the elderly. This is the first time the Chinese government has conducted a systematic and comprehensive review of policies for elderly people living in rural areas.
The Chinese government plans to establish regional elderly care service centers. It will also increase the supply of elderly care services in rural areas, including disability treatment, medical and health care facilities, home visits, learning, and entertainment. It has been determined that current rural elderly care facilities and services are limited; there are only 16,000 nursing homes located in rural China, 1,681,000 beds, and about 145,000 service facilities for the elderly.
According to the "Rural Green Book" (Analysis and Forecast of Rural Economic Conditions, 2023-2024) recently published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the annual pension amount per rural elderly person in 2022 was 2,456 yuan (approximately 466,418 KRW), which averages 204.7 yuan per month.
The aging of China's rural population is accelerating every year. According to the 7th National Population Census statistics released in 2020, the rural population aged 60 and over in China was 121.36 million, accounting for 23.81% of the total rural population. This is 7.99 percentage points higher than in urban areas. Compared to the 6th National Population Census statistics released in 2010, where the rural elderly population aged 60 and over was 99.28 million, accounting for 14.98% of China's population, it is clear that the proportion of the rural elderly population has surged dramatically in just 10 years.
Considering that the population aged 60 and over in China was 296.97 million as of the end of last year, this means that half of the entire elderly population currently lives in rural areas.
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